So as some of you may know Ive just started my Medtronic pump, comming off the Omnipod and one thing that Ive been having problems with is air bubbles in my tubes.
how can you prevent them?
When you fill the insulin resevoir, do it with room temperature insulin (I try to take mine out of the fridge about an hour before I fill the cartridge). Then lots of tapping the reservoir to make sure you get rid of the air bubbles when filling.
I also spot check for air bubbles when I disconnect my pump. If I see one (which is rare), then I prime (fill the tubing) to get rid of it.
another thing you can do is when you prime the cartridge do it slow enough that you can see exactly what’s going on. and make sure the tubing is on the cartridge tight enough.
How about getting the markers on the reservoir to line up exactly with the cutout on the side of the pump? I can usually get kinda close, but only spot-on about 1 out of 10 times.
All of the above advice helped me in the past, but another source of bubbles in the tubing I have seen lately is if I ever snag my tube, or have a sudden jerk pull at the site or pump (jerky movement, not person…) - I’ll then sometimes see a bubble in the line a half hour or so later…
HAs anyone else had that experience?
Me! Me!
Well, if there are jerky people going around pulling at other peoples’ insulin pump tubing, I have not yet had the misfortune of meeting them…
woot woot! i started my medtronic too like yesterday… and i’m pretty much the biggest sketchbag on earth right now… i keep thinking there’s like air bubbles and blockages in my tubing haha… apparently the champagne bubbles are nothing to worry about though. How do you like it Kenny? are you finding it hard to get your basal rates under control like me! haha
HAHA me too. Keep all jerks from pulling on your pump tubing!
When my grandfather read “Twas a night before Christmas” to us, there was a part where it said “St. Nick turned with a jerk”. My grandfather would always say, “I wonder who that jerk was!”
Those aren’t bubbles they are kinks in the plastic tubing. The tubing is so tough you can stretch is about 10-12 feet before it breaks.
It can take awhile to get your basal rates under complete control, just be patient, you will get there.
Excellent advice. One thing to add – sometimes when removing the plunger once the reservoir is filled, the orings can let in a little bit of air, particularly if the plunger is tightly screwed in to the bottom of the reservoir. Try loosening the plunger right after step 2.
I use this method from a youtube video I found, it has worked great for me. I also do the tapping on the pump to help push bubbles to the top when priming. I haven’t had a bubble in months now, knock on wood! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwbelFCNGz4
So, I’ve had the pump for two weeks tomorrow…today I noticed bubbles in the tube and came online and read about the room temperature insulin, which I didn’t fill with today, to remove the air bubbles I just rewound and primed my machine.
Is that ok?
Hi Tina,
Check the tubing and see if you see any air bubble. If they are little “champagne bubbles” then I think that it is OK to leave it, but if you can see a long bubble in the tubing, then you should disconnect the pump and prime until you see that you got rid of it.
I always seem to have some (small) bubbles and I don’t worry about them-- only it they are more than a few millimeters long in the tubing.